Jackpot Jimmy
10-23-2011, 08:08 PM
The day started out in thick fog – so thick I couldn’t see the breakwater on our way out. We rolled (I think) up the coast a ways and got set up on a spot for some sculpin, and after repositioning the boat, we really got into them. A lot of these sculpin were nice ones up to 1 ½ pounds with some even probably up to 2 pounds. They were biting the bigger leadhead and scampi with squid very well. After a while we had limits for our 15 people on board, so we started pulling the anchor, and just then my friend Bill hooked up on something big which he thought to be a sand bass. As we started to pull away I asked him if I should go tell Taras, our captain for the day, to stop, and he said no he would just try to muscle it in. Well, as we were speeding up, the fish eventually got up to the surface and skipped, and revealed to be a nice lingcod with a big head. Then Bill said for me to yell and I ran up to the bridge and said that Bill had a fish on, but during that time the line broke. Oh well, shoulda-woulda-coulda.
We then proceeded out to the rockfish grounds and Taras set us up on a drift. Things were slow at first but we hit some good bottom along the way holding some nice fish. The bocaccio were ever plentiful, and perhaps even a nuisance. The vast majority of these bocaccio were actually good eating size, not the big, tar-spot ones that we were getting last April. Nevertheless, the limit on bocaccio is still two, so after getting a couple, I switched from a jig over to a dropper loop and squid strips, but I was too late on the reds. While I was fishing the jig, guys near the stern were catching some really nice reds, with a few doubles here and there. As much as I’d love to catch me a red, I love fishing the jig more, and sometimes reds will be eager to eat the jig, and, well, some days, they’d rather not. However, there were some small chillies that were hitting the jig and shrimp fly way up off the bottom on the way down.
We drifted over the area a few more times and then we headed inside a little bit to try to catch some lings. When we got to the spot, we were a tad bit annoyed to find that the spot was inhabited by a plethora of – yes, you guessed it – bocaccio. Fortunately, we were shallow enough to where they were coming up with eyes in tact, so almost all of them made it back down. We also picked some more starries and barber poles here too, but no lings came up. A couple potential bites were had, but nothing came of them.
Time was running out and we had a lot of fish to clean, so Taras said we could keep fishing and we drifted off the lingcod spot. We caught quite a few sand dabs on squid and so did I on the Lucanus Jig with squid. I decided to try it without squid and I hooked something that felt nice that ended up being a baby black seabass. When you think you’ve seen it all. Soon after, we headed in.
As foggy as it was all day, the water was calm and so was the wind, making for perfect drifts out on the cod grounds. The lings were a little less eager to bite, but I have a feeling we’ll see more of them in the next couple months to the end of the year. Great times, great fishing!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/012-40.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/013-35.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/014-41.jpg
We then proceeded out to the rockfish grounds and Taras set us up on a drift. Things were slow at first but we hit some good bottom along the way holding some nice fish. The bocaccio were ever plentiful, and perhaps even a nuisance. The vast majority of these bocaccio were actually good eating size, not the big, tar-spot ones that we were getting last April. Nevertheless, the limit on bocaccio is still two, so after getting a couple, I switched from a jig over to a dropper loop and squid strips, but I was too late on the reds. While I was fishing the jig, guys near the stern were catching some really nice reds, with a few doubles here and there. As much as I’d love to catch me a red, I love fishing the jig more, and sometimes reds will be eager to eat the jig, and, well, some days, they’d rather not. However, there were some small chillies that were hitting the jig and shrimp fly way up off the bottom on the way down.
We drifted over the area a few more times and then we headed inside a little bit to try to catch some lings. When we got to the spot, we were a tad bit annoyed to find that the spot was inhabited by a plethora of – yes, you guessed it – bocaccio. Fortunately, we were shallow enough to where they were coming up with eyes in tact, so almost all of them made it back down. We also picked some more starries and barber poles here too, but no lings came up. A couple potential bites were had, but nothing came of them.
Time was running out and we had a lot of fish to clean, so Taras said we could keep fishing and we drifted off the lingcod spot. We caught quite a few sand dabs on squid and so did I on the Lucanus Jig with squid. I decided to try it without squid and I hooked something that felt nice that ended up being a baby black seabass. When you think you’ve seen it all. Soon after, we headed in.
As foggy as it was all day, the water was calm and so was the wind, making for perfect drifts out on the cod grounds. The lings were a little less eager to bite, but I have a feeling we’ll see more of them in the next couple months to the end of the year. Great times, great fishing!
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/012-40.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/013-35.jpg
http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo358/Jackpot-Jimmy/014-41.jpg